In conversation with the past and the present, our worship flows from the words and life of Jesus, the witness of Holy Scripture, and the practices of the Christian church through the ages.
Therefore our worship follows a historic pattern of dialogue that begins with God calling us to worship and praise. We then move to a time of honesty and confession followed by the assurance of God’s grace towards us, a time of teaching from the Bible, and a celebration of the Lord’s Supper each week. The sacraments of the Lord’s Supper and Baptism give shape to our worship, while prayer, especially the Psalms, shapes the language we use as we relate to God and others.
We believe that worship celebrates the story of God’s redemption through Jesus. Following the Christian calendar, we rehearse that story each week and throughout the year. Seasons such as Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost allow us to celebrate the mighty acts and promises of God past, present, and future. These seasons encourage us to see ourselves as participants in that redemptive story.
We believe that God Himself has called us to this place. All are invited to join in worship as we gather under this reality, and are reminded of the supremacy of the God who has called us. We speak the words of Scripture together to remind us that we approach God as his “called out” community and we sing songs that proclaim the “otherness” of God and His love for all that He has created.
After this we acknowledge the brokenness exhibited throughout Creation, and even within our own hearts, through a prayer of confession. Not only does this remind us of God’s offer of reconciliation, but it models (on a weekly basis) the kind of forgiveness that we are to offer to one another.
Written and spoken words have the almost mysterious ability to affect our hearts. We believe that God has spoken, and still speaks to us today as we engage with the inspired words of Scripture. We hear, speak, and listen to God’s Word as we explore the story of God’s love that can be found in the Old and New Testament’s of the Christian Scriptures. Jesus Christ is the ultimate form of God’s Word who prompts us to consider how we might follow Him today in reality of His life, death, and resurrection.
God provides us with the strength to follow Jesus and offers us unity with Him. Through the communion table we are reminded that the Holy Spirit unites us with each other and with Jesus because of the sacrifice He made. We give thanks to God by remembering the cost of redemption, but we also rejoice in the real hope that this provides. We are free to follow Him in this life without having to attain perfection, and we are free to partake in his resurrection after we have died.
We practice this rhythm every week so that we are reminded and formed by the reality of this grace and hope found only through Jesus Christ.
Christ has ascended to the right hand of the Father, and we have been invited to become His presence on earth through the power of the Holy Spirit. Having partaken in Christ’s body, we are then sent as Christ’s body to bear witness to the resurrection in the midst of our fallen and “graceless” world. We no longer exist for ourselves, but for the sake of others. Christ has modeled for us this kind of self-giving which leads to life through death.
The previous movements of the service lead up to this moment. We are blessed and set free to enter God’s mission outside the walls of the church. We do this by giving of ourselves to meet the physical and spiritual needs of those outside of the church with whom we live with everyday.
"Worship is a meeting between God and his people, a meeting in which both parties act—God as the initiator and we as the responders."
Nicholas Wolterstorff
